The Adventures of Pride and Stubbornness
by foxyrules
Summary: Traipsing across the universe is fun, but what will happen when pride meets stubbornness? An Epic love story? A total disaster? You'll have to read to find out ;) This fic is set in AU, so not a lot of cannon here, maybe.
1. The Mission

The orders were from his father and they were very clear. He had to at all costs retrieve Dr. Briefs's lead scientist from Planet Shurell and bring the scientist back to planet Vegeta. It was imperative that Dr. Briefs's man never fall into the hands of Frieza or his men.

Apparently when Vegeta was just a boy, one of his father's scouts happened upon a planet with an oddly similar dominant species to his own. At the time the Saiyans were indebted to Frieza, it was really more like enslavement.

Before any discovery of this planet or any space travel, the Saiyans were slaves of the Tuffels, who used their technological advancements to keep them in line. Until one Saiyan united the clans to turn their rage from each other and towards their clever masters. After the Tuffel war, most of the technology on planet Vegeta was destroyed, leaving the Saiyans in a position to accept help from the Planet trade organization. Frieza wanted them because of their fighting ability, and he was willing to give aid in the form of technological advancements that would help them do his dirty work. Saiyan troops were used as mobile slaughterhouses for inferior planets, hardly honorable work for a warrior race. It seemed that they traded one form of slavery for another; until the big breakthrough happened.

The story the prince had known, up until a few days ago, was that Saiyan scientists found a way to shield an entire planet from harm. It was some kind of force field that would repel energy attacks and prevent physical entry to anyone who did not have clearance. They were able to arm the system shortly before the Lizard King was scheduled to come and take Vegeta under his wing. Frieza wanted him as a hostage, but King Vegeta wasn't ready to give up his first son to be raised by a psychopathic tyrant. The shield went up and Frieza realized that he could no longer hold control over the Saiyans. Now they were bitter enemies splitting the universe in two. The Saiyans liberating planets and forming stronger alliances with new ones and the Kolds destroying worlds that showed no potential profit and committing xenocide to remove "unwanted pests".

The part of this history that had changed in the last few days was the identity of the savior of planet Vegeta. The top secret and classified information that not even the Prince of all Saiyans had been privy to, before his new mission, was that it was not Saiyan scientists who had saved Vegeta, but Earthling scientists. To the public eye it seemed that the little blue ball known as Earth, joined the Saiyan Empire about a year ago, but in reality the entire scheme for creating it was born between his father and one of Earth's leading scientists, Dr. Briefs.

Vegeta had learned that most of the technological advancements made over the last twenty years had actually come from Earth. Vegeta had only seen a few Earthlings since they became part of the alliance. They bared a remarkable resemblance to Saiyans, but had the most unremarkable power levels. His initial reaction was disbelief in what his father was saying; until he produced the newest piece of tech that had been delivered to him from Earth. It was packed in a tiny capsule that his father threw to the ground and in a puff of smoke produced a generator. Next to the machine was a disk, Vegeta retrieved the disk and the king put it into the player at his desk.

The disk began to go through different images with a voiceover; his father muted the video and began explaining, "These are included for instruction on the nature of the items he sends us. It also includes schematics that our scientists use to reproduce the technology. He has become quite good at making his inventions look more Saiyan, before we would have to add certain touches to make it more believable that they came from us."

Vegeta was in shock, "How do you know we can trust these people? How can we be sure that they won't enslave us like the Tuffels or Frieza?"

"Son, this alliance saved us from the Kolds. And for twenty years both sides have kept their promises. The humans didn't have to help us, they could have stood alone and resisted or stayed hidden and out of the whole thing."

The Prince stood with his arms folded and a scowl on his face, "So in exchange for some tech you allow a pathetic human to control Saiyan troops!"

King Vegeta stood, "Watch your mouth, Boy! I am the commander of Saiyan forces! The agreement I have with the humans exchanges information between us, no one gives orders to the other. I am not a foolish whelp, who cannot tell friend from foe!"

"So the humans ask for nothing?!"

"The humans want protection. My silence about their existence and the promise to leave their planet out of the line of fire were all they asked for in the beginning."

"And let me guess; they've gotten greedy have they? All the power and conquering we've done, and now they want in. Is that why their existence has gone public?"

The king took his seat again; he looked almost pained as if he had been the source of someone's disappointment, "They had to be exposed to protect them! Someone broke through; someone found them. The humans managed to kill the one they found, but there was no guarantee that their existence wasn't comprimised. We had to make the alliance public in order to protect both of our interests. Now we can receive help from them and everyone knows they are under our protection. And now they can more freely work with us."

"What do you mean?"

"It has been the humans who have found most of the new planets that were added to our empire. Their technology can easily scan planets and help determine what should be done. Their scouts have had to work in secret, but now they have the freedom to move faster and more publicly than before."

"Than before!"

"They are our eyes and ears inside the Kold empire. Dr. Briefs has tremendous insight with his technology and he's a savvy tactician when it comes to military campaigns."

Vegeta was absolutely exasperated, "I can't believe what I'm hearing. I can't believe…you're taking advice from a race with an average power level of 5!"

"What you believe is of little consequence now. There is news that someone has spotted Dr. Briefs's team doing some work on planet Shurell. One of his lead scientists is among them. Some of Frieza's men have been seen nearing the area and could come into contact with the team. They are in the middle of setting up a PPU system for Shurell. The enemy is far too close and the scientist on the set up crew will be one of the few people that know the codes to the PPU systems. That means if Frieza gets his hands on that person all the planets that use the system will be open to an attack, including this one.

Your mission is to retrieve the scientist and bring him back SAFELY to Planet Vegeta. Your primary objective is to keep the scientist out of Kold hands. Secondary to this is to allow PPU systems to be installed on planet Shurell, it serves as a strategic base and has resources from which Saiyans and Humans would benefit greatly."

That was all it took to send Vegeta on his way. He wouldn't take any chances with his own planet's security. He took a medium, scouting vessel that could hold him and a small crew as well as be fast enough to get them away from any of Frieza's scouting ships.

"Prince Vegeta, we are approaching planet Shurell."

"Good. Nappa, make sure that Raditz and Kakarot are ready; the four of us will make up the landing party."

"Right away, Your Highness."


	2. The Scientist

They landed on the desert planet they used wrist scouters to detect a set of power levels just beyond the horizon. They flew until they found a small camp of dust colored tents outside a rock formation that Vegeta could tell was the mouth of a cave. As they landed they were approached by a small creature carrying what he guessed was a weapon. As the creature approached, Vegeta realized it was a human female.

"What's your business here?" Her hand was steady and her weapon trained directly at Vegeta. She didn't appear to be afraid of them or to know who they were. She was wearing a cloth that covered her face, protecting it from the winds that were common on this planet. Her head was also covered, but a black fringe of hair was protruding from the covering.

"You better lower that pea-shooter your carrying, before you bit off more than you can chew, Bitch."

The woman glanced at Nappa as he took a step forward; with out hesitation she leveled a blast at his feet. The wave of energy from the shot caused Nappa to fall on his ass. She smirked at his astonished look, "I asked you why you were here. You can tell me or you can talk to my "pea-shooter" makes no difference on my end."

"My name is Vegeta, Prince of all Saiyans, and I have been sent to collect the Earther scientist and make sure he gets safely back to the Empire."

"Do you have proof that you are who you say you are?"

Vegeta was annoyed, never before had he have to prove his identity, let alone to some weakling woman. He reached into his suit and produced the tiny capsule that his father had shown him in his office. He tossed it to her.

She caught it and examined it. With a quick nod she turned slinging the gun onto her back. "Follow me."

"Do you think they're friendly, Vegeta?"

"Who cares if they're friendly, Kakarot, do you think she's available? Any woman that can knock Nappa on his ass is worth a romp in the sack."

"Shut up, Raditz!"

"Yes, Prince."

"You are not here to fraternize. We will retrieve the scientist and return to Planet Vegeta."

In unison the men responded, "Yes, Sir."

"Now let's go get our scientist."

The Saiyans were shown to a large tent, inside there was a table at the far end with documents and plans strewn about. In the middle of the tent was a larger table with seating for 8 people. The sentry that led them in removed her face covering, but did not set down her weapon.

"You can wait here, food and drink –"

"You will bring me to the head scientist, now! I do not have time for niceties, and will only speak to him."

The woman took a deep breath and proceeded, "food and drink will be made available to you, while "I" go and get "HIM". Work is done in the caves, which require special apparatus to breath. It will be faster and safer for me to go, than to fit you with one."

Vegeta folded his arms over his chest and all could see his eye twitching. He clearly did not like being challenged and has rarely heard the word no. With an impatient glare he spoke, "Well, hurry up and retrieve your master, I will not be kept waiting."

With a quick nod and an almost imperceptible smirk, she was gone through the back of the tent. A moment later some of the native Shurellians emerged carrying water canteens and a few platters of dried fruits.

"Oh wow, Vegeta, you should try this it's really good." Vegeta turned to see Kakarot stuffing his face with the food that was just brought out with one hand and holding the other out to him with an offer of the fruit.

Vegeta eyed the fruit and snatched it out of Kakarot's hand, "We are not here for eating, fool." Vegeta examined the fruit and took a bite, it was sweet and tart and reminded him how dry his throat was from the arid climate and dusty air. He decided to take the water from the table as well. When he did, his other two companions started to dig in.

About 10 minutes later, the Earth woman returned with another, who also appeared to be female, around the same height as herself, and was covered from head to toe in dark brown coveralls, heavy leather welding gloves, dark lensed goggles, and a breathing respirator.

"What is the meaning of this? I told you to bring me the head scientist. Now, bring him to me, I am the Prince of all Saiyans under direct mission from the King of Vegeta!"

The women shared a glance with each other before the second one removed her gloves and respirator. The skin beneath was light in color but covered in a fine layer of black dust from the cave she had been working in. When her goggles were removed, a pair of strikingly bright blue eyes was revealed.

The blue-eyed woman spoke, "The head scientist is extremely busy, so, Prince of all Saiyans, speak what you wish to say."

Vegeta grit his teeth and rose from his seat, "I'm done playing games! I have come here to secure the head scientist and bring him back to my planet. None of your lives are of any concern to me, so I will not repeat myself again. BRING ME YOUR MASTER!" Vegeta was about a foot away from the new girl, growling in frustration. The first girl clutched up on her weapon, but did not aim it at him.

The blue-eyed girl started to chuckle, "My father has a rather strange sense of humor." Shaking her head, she spoke more to herself than anyone else, "Sending Saiyans." She straightened and stuck out her hand in greeting to the angry prince, "My name is Dr. Bulma Briefs, I am the one you seek. She is Chi chi, my assistant and friend."

All the Saiyans were shocked. Could this woman really be the scientist that was so valuable to the Empire? Nappa started going through the paperwork he carried, "Impossible, the request said it was a man."

Bulma turned her attention to the large man, "Did it? Or did it say scientist and you assumed that it would be a man?" She turned back to Vegeta, "My father words his requests in a very specific manner. Saying scientist instead of daughter or using my name leaves things vague. Vagueness means while the enemy is looking for a head scientist, which they assume to be male, as you did, they ignore what they assume is a helpless female."

Vegeta took in her words what she said made sense. It was a cleaver ruse they had not been lied to, just mistaken, but either way Vegeta hated being made to look like a fool. He stared down at her hand then up to her face again.

When it became clear that Vegeta was not going to shake her hand, either because he didn't understand the gesture or didn't want to, she withdrew it. She then motioned toward the table, "Shall we discuss your mission?" Without waiting for an answer she sat down and took one of the canteens from the table.

Vegeta looked towards his men. Nappa stopped looking through the paperwork and gave Vegeta a look like -he couldn't disprove anything that she said. Raditz and Kakarot were still seated at the table, with Kakarot stuffing his face as if nothing happened. Without many options, Vegeta unfolded his hands and took his seat across from Bulma.

"We are to bring you safely from this place to planet Vegeta. You will come with us to our ship in orbit, you will secure all documents and equipment that are sensitive to the protection of the Saiyan Empire and be ready to leave in one hour."

Without flinching Bulma fired back, "Why are we leaving?"

"That is not your concern, you will-"

"You have no jurisdiction over what is or is not MY concern. Clearly, you have been sent here with minimal information because of a risk to my capture. I am asking you if that risk has been identified and how close it is expected to be. This concerns me and it SHOULD concern you. Or do you not have that information?"

After a long pause with both parties just staring at each other, Bulma decided to change tactics. "What did your mission say about securing this planet?"

Vegeta took a calming, yet frustrated, breath; "If it is possible we are to leave the planet with its PPU functional. You mission log indicates that the functionality date is more than 2 months from now, there is no way we can stay that long."

"How long can we stay? How close are they?"

Vegeta turned his head to Raditz for an answer, "Reports indicate there are enemy vessels about 70 parsecs away. If they know about this place, they could get here in 10 hours at the fastest."

Vegeta turned back to Bulma, "See, no time."

"That's more than enough time. Bring your pods closer to the site so that we can load our equipment and tell your ship to keep star-side of the planet until we can join them."

"You don't give orders here."

"I can have the system up and running in 5 hours, in 6 we can be ship-side and on our way. Bringing your pods closer will speed up loading time and keeping your ship star-side will jam a scanner's signal so they are less likely to be detected, and it is the safest place to be during an activation. Unless you would like your ship damaged by the shields?"

"You're telling me that you can do 2 months work in 5 hours?"

"I'm telling you, don't believe everything you read in a file that you were able to access without an encryption code."

After a quick chat with the Shurellians, the girls put on their gear and started heading back into the caves. Vegeta had his men go and retrieve the pods while he made arrangements with the ship.

Five hours later Chi chi came running back up into the tent area.

"What is taking so long? Where is Brief's?"

"There was a problem with some of the relay housing that got cracked. It should be done soon. I have to help her activate it from here."

Chi chi scrambled to some controls that were in the corner of the tent. After hitting a few buttons and adjusting a knob she gave the signal across a communication device. "All set when you are."

 **"10-4. Starting sequence in 3, 2, …1."**

There was silence, then a large boom and the ground shook for a moment.

"Was that supposed to happen?" They all stood stock-still for a minute waiting for another shock or something else. A whirring sound came across the equipment and the lights flickered in the tent.

"Bulma? …Bulma, did something happen?... did it work?" Chi chi said a silent prayer as the Saiyans looked on.

 **"System complete. Everything is up and running. Commence activation protocols and final testing."**

There was a sigh of relief in the room. "Roger that, now get your ass up here so we can get out. The short stack is ready to blow its top."

 **"Copy that. If the top comes off just douse some water on it."**

A few minutes later Bulma emerged from the cave entrance covered in more dark soot than she had been before.

"You're late." Vegeta stood there with his arms crossed over his chest.

Bulma plopped down the respirator she had been wearing, "And you're dry." A vein began to bulge on the prince's forehead. "Relax, we have plenty of time."

"We were supposed to be on the ship, half an hour ago."

"So my estimate was a little off, it's not the end of the world."

Vegeta let out a growl, "YOU AND YOUR ASSISTANT HAVE FIVE MINUTES TO GET IN THE PODS, OR WE ARE LEAVING YOUR ASS HERE!" Vegeta turned and stormed out of the tent towards the pods, "to the pods, NOW!" His three companions quickly followed after him.

Bulma turned to Chi chi, "we'll that was a bit dramatic."

"We shouldn't get him angry, Bulma, what if he leaves us here?"

"And fail at his mission, Nah, he's got too much to loose if he comes back without us."

"Buuuulma."

Bulma rolled her eyes, "Fine. Why don't you get everything capsulated and I'll debrief the Shurellians and maybe we can meet the prince's completely arbitrary and ridiculous deadline."


	3. Tight Spaces

6 minutes later.

Six minutes, it had been exactly 6 minutes since he had given her an order to be at the pods and she was not here. He never met anyone who would dare to disobey a direct order.

"Maybe their watches are slow."

Vegeta slapped Kakarot across the back of his head, "Their watches aren't slow you idiot! They know what they are doing."

"Would you like me to go and fetch them, Lord Vegeta."

"You better not, Nappa, or that little one will put you on your ass again."

"You better shut it, Raditz, or I'll make it so you never walk again." As the two Saiyans went on with their banter, that vein in Vegeta's head just kept getting bigger and bigger.

"See, Chi Chi, I told you they'd be here."

All of the Saiyans looked up to see the two women standing there with not much more than the soot-covered clothes on their backs and two rucksacks. "You're…"

"Late, we know. Can we just get going or am I to assume the reason you waited for more than five minutes is because there is a problem with the pods?"

Vegeta's eyes narrowed, "Get in."

Bulma looked and noticed there were only the four pods the Saiyans came in, "Where are our pods?"

"You one of you will ride with Raditz and the other with Kakarot."

"Of course, wouldn't want to put the high and mighty Princeling out!"

Nappa growled and stepped towards Bulma at the same time Chi Chi cocked her gun and pointed it into Nappa's back, "Watch yourself, Earther."

Bulma, who at this point hadn't turned around to acknowledge the giant menacing right behind her, "It's ling."

"What?"

"Ling, it's Earth-ling, not Earther, and I would suggest you follow your own advice." She eyed Vegeta, "Please tell me he isn't Kakarot or Raditz."

"I am Kakarot," the smallest, aside from the Prince spoke up.

"And I am Raditz, my lady." Raditz said as he swaggered over to Chi Chi.

Bulma rolled her eyes and once again addressed Vegeta, "Fine we do things your way, don't blame me if I have to blast one of your men because they don't know how to keep to themselves, and next-time I get my own pod."

"Tch." Bulma decided to take this as about as much acknowledgement as she was going to get from the surly Prince. She finally turned away from him and towards where the others were standing, unfortunately Nappa was blocking her view of most of them, but she wasn't going to acknowledge his attempt at intimidation.

"Ok Chi chi, you are going to ride with Kakarot and I'll ride with Raditz." Chi chi moved wide of Nappa so she could see Bulma and gave her an 'are you sure' kind of look. Bulma gave a brief nod to tell her to get to the pod. Chi chi moved off towards Kakarot.

With the threat of Chi chi's gun gone, Bulma waited for Nappa to move off to his own pod, several moments passed with no words or movement from him or Bulma, and Vegeta was getting impatient. "Get in your pod, Nappa, we are late enough as it is."

Nappa kept his eyes narrowed at Bulma, "Yes, Prince Vegeta." As he turned to get into his pod he saw Bulma giving him a cheeky smile and a smart-alec wave bye.

"I wouldn't get on his bad side, Doc, he has a nasty side." Raditz had come up behind Bulma while she was teasing Nappa.

"I can handle myself." Bulma said with much confidence.

"I'm sure you can." Raditz started to eye her up and down, and of course, Bulma noticed.

Bulma snapped her fingers to get Raditz's attention, "Hey, my eyes are up here, radish."

"It's Raditz."

"Whatever, lets get one thing straight, you keep your hands, your tail, and whatever else you have to yourself or I'll cut it off and mount it to my wall when I get home, got it!"

Raditz cinched his tail a little tighter around his waist, "Got it." There was something about the woman who didn't take shit from Vegeta that made him a little nervous about sharing a pod.

"Good, then let's go."

They all arrived at the ship and roughly the same condition that they left the planet. Vegeta immediately left for the bridge to oversee the exit strategy, Nappa and Raditz were not too far behind. That left Bulma, Chi chi, and Kakarot in the docking station.

"I can take you to your rooms, you can put your stuff down and get comfortable, maybe take a bath."

"Are you insinuating something!" Bulma's ride with Raditz had been 10 minutes of awkward silence with Bulma daring Raditz to say one of the obviously skeezy comments.

"Bulma, I mentioned to Kakarot that neither of us have had a decent bath in months, and we ARE covered in Shureian dust."

Bulma let out a calming breath, "I'm sorry, Kakarot, it's just been very stressful the last few days."

"Don't worry about it, my brother isn't the easiest person to get along with."

"Brother!"

Chi chi pushed Bulma's bag into her and got in between her and Kakarot, "Kakarot, why don't you show us to our rooms."

"Sure. You two were going to be down on L deck, but once we learned that you were women, Vegeta decided that keeping you away from the rest of the crew might be a better idea, so you'll stay on A deck closer to him. The rooms are a little nicer here and you'll have your own bathroom for the two of you, instead of sharing with half the deck."

"That's very nice of Prince Vegeta, isn't it Bulma?"

The door slid open when Kakarot put in the code, Bulma walked into the sitting area between their two rooms, "Yeah, real nice of him."

Chi chi followed her in, her attitude still chipper, "You're just hungry, once we clean up we can get a bite, ok?" She turned to Kakarot when she realized he was still standing outside the door. "Is there something wrong?"

Kakarot looked a little flushed and had his hand behind his head, "oh, no. You see Vegeta gave strict orders for all of us to stay out of your rooms, on pain of de-tailing."

"Oh, I see. Well, I don't want to get you in trouble, is there anything else we need to know?"

"Yes, you can eat in the captain's hall and chow is usually in four hours, but just check in the kitchen and Turtles will find you something. To get there, follow the blue stripe. Oh and here are your codes and instructions to change them."

Bulma was more than a little grumpy at this point and was getting tired of Chi chi making goo-goo eyes at Kakarot. So she jumped in taking the paper from Kakarot's hand, "Thank you, Kakarot. We're going to go get cleaned up now, we'll try and make it for dinner."

Kakarot who had been lost smiling at Chi chi was suddenly brought back to reality with Bulma's face. "Yeah, sure just let me know if you need anything, bye."

"Bye." The door slid closed again and Bulma was starring at Chi chi who was still looking at the place where Kakarot was, but was now blocked by the door.

"What happened in that pod, Chi? Did he zap you with some weird Saiyan hormone to make you all soft?"

Chi chi was broken from her trance, "NO, wha..why would you say that?"

Bulma chuckled, "Oh I don't know." Then Bulma proceeded in a mocking feminine voice, "Oh, Kakarot, we wouldn't want yooou to get in trouble."

"I don't sound like that."

Bulma chuckled more.

"At least I don't sound like some PMS beast from the black lagoon. You're jumping down everyone's throats, and egging on that big guy, Bulma, I thought you were supposed to be smart."

"How do you know I'm not PMSing?"

"Because we're synced up, and I actually keep track of my cycle, unlike you."

"Ok, ok. I'll try to be better; it's just that Vegeta one, he's a nightmare."

"Yeah, I think he might be more pigheaded than you."

"I'm not that bad. I at least didn't make you ride with Mr. Slick. That had to be the most tense ride of my life."

"You didn't have to ride with him, I could have handled it, Bulma. I'm supposed to be watching out for you, remember?"

"He had been eye-fucking you since he got here, I wasn't about to let you ride alone with that creep. And you are here as my friend, not my bodyguard. But maybe next time I should ride with Ka-KA-rot and find out why you are getting so ga-ga around him."

"He was nice, it was refreshing."

Bulma smiled at her friend, "Speaking of refreshing, I believed he mentioned that we could have a bath here." She started to remove her clothing on her way to the bathroom.

Chi chi shook her head as she followed along, picking up the discarded clothing that Bulma was leaving behind.


	4. Breach

So Apparently last time I posted a chapter it wouldn't notify anyone, so if you are reading this and it seems a bit out of place, make sure you go back and read the previous chapter. You can also find my stories on AO3.

After being on Shurell for so long they had built up an almost permanent layer of dust on their skin. The dust was hydrophobic, so they could not wash it off with water. They had to rub oil on their skin and scrape off the dirt. This took a considerable amount of time, considering they also had to soak their hair in oil as well. After scraping what they could off and wringing the oil from their hair, they settled in to a hot bath in the large tub that was provided. This had to be the best part of meeting the Saiyan brutes; at least they traveled with some luxuries.

"Your hair is finally looking blue again, you had so much of that oil and dust in it, it looked like mine."

"I know. Ahha, I'm starting to feel like me again." Bulma stretched her arms out in front of her. "I almost forgot how pale I was."

"Yeah you could blind someone." Bulma splashed some of the water at Chi chi. "I think I'm done, we've been in for more than an hour. We should get dressed and down to mess." Chi chi stepped out of the bath and started drying herself.

"I think I'll just stay here, I'm too tired to put on clothes."

"Bulma! You are not going to sleep naked while we are with these guys. And I'm not about to let you skip another meal. You never realize when you forget to eat. It makes you grumpy as hell and it's been almost three days since you've had a hot dinner."

"Fine, fine. I'll go with you." She reached down and pulled the plug for the tub. She got out and grabbed her towel, "Even though I'm not that hungry."

"Good, we dress, eat, and then come straight back here to get some rest."

"Uhh. Yes, mom!"

o0o0o

All four soldiers were in the mess hall before chow. The smell of food always seemed to draw everyone in, but one surly Saiyan was notably absent.

"So tell me about this scientist. It seems he's got Vegeta all in a huff."

Raditz smirked as he filled in his brother, "Well, to start with he is a she." A puzzled then knowing look crossed Turtle's face. "And SHE is a ball buster shrew with a death wish. Staring down Vegeta, questioning his orders, and after she rejected his plan, proceeded to tell him how things were going to happen."

Turtle's jaw was agape, "Naw, you're pulling my tail."

A growl came from Nappa, "Raditz, you need to learn to shut that trap of yours."

Raditz leaned back in his chair, putting his feet up on the table, "Awe, Nappa, you're just mad because her cute assistant put you on your ass."

Nappa pulled the chair out from under Raditz causing him to topple over on the floor. "Who's on their ass now?" Turtles roared with laughter until Nappa turned to him, "The Prince has given strict orders, these females are not to be touched. That means you two are gonna stay far away from them."

"Hey, why are you looking at me? Kakarot is here too."

"I don't have to worry about him. He's so soft in the head, he wouldn't know what to do with a female if he had one."

"What's for dinner?"

"See."

"Roast labturk and gondab meal with gravy." Turtles rolled his eyes, "You can't deny a man dying of thirst the dream of a drink of water."

"I would hardly call them water, more like battery acid and motor oil."

"Chi chi seems nice." The other Saiyans all stared at him, "I wonder if she likes labturk?"

"You've got to be kidding." Raditz nearly fell out of his chair again.

"You're right, everyone likes labturk." A growl came from his stomach, "When will it be ready, again?"

"Gods, Kakarot, do you think of anything besides food?"

There was a knock on the door before someone started to open it, "Hello, is this the captain's chow hall?"

Turtles's mouth was agape after seeing the most beautiful shade of blue in his life. It took a beat for the others to turn and see a very unfamiliar sight. Raditz was drooling much like Turtles, Nappa was a bit startled thinking for a moment that someone had stowed away on the ship, and Kakarot was trying to figure out who this new girl was.

It was Turtles who found his words first, "You bet it is. I'm to presume you are the cute assistant Raditz mentioned."

Bulma glared annoyed at what Raditz could have been telling this guy, who looked much like Kakarot's clone, "Guess again."

"Bulma, don't be rude." Chi chi pushed her way into the room.

"Wow, this is the scientist? You were holding out, Raditz; mentioning the assistant, but leaving out the stunning doctor."

Raditz was flabbergasted, "She didn't look like this before, believe me."

Bulma was starring daggers at Raditz, "SHE can hear you, ya know!"

Turtles quickly moved to greet Bulma more personally and picked up her hand in a romantic gesture, "Of course you can, pardon me Dr. …"

"Briefs, but I go by Bulma."

Turtles raised her hand to give it a chaste kiss, "Bulma, it is my pleasure to meet you. I am lieutenant Turtles. Dinner will be ready shortly; let me get your chair. You can sit by me."

Bulma was at first flustered by the flirtatious nature of Turtles, but quickly gained her composure after turning a slight shade of pink. Her attention was pulled towards Nappa as he growled at the young warrior, "Watch it."

"I'm only being polite, Nappa, not that you would understand the first thing about manners." The elder Saiyan snorted his displeasure, while Bulma grinned and took a seat between two vacant chairs at the round table.

"Chi chi you can sit over here."

Chi chi quickly moved to sit next to Kakarot, "Thank you." He poured her a drink from the pitcher at the table.

Turtles leaned down near Bulma's head, "Can I get you something to drink, Lady Bulma?"

Slightly startled by his sudden nearness, Bulma blushed a little as she answered, "Yes, please."

"Would you stop trying your luck, and get dinner on the damn table." With a sigh, Turtles returned behind the counter to finish the meal.

Bulma was a bit grateful for Nappa's interruption, not that she would ever tell him that. Men had always treated Bulma differently, but she was never that comfortable with their close proximity when they tried pursuing her. She had become confident in many things, but she had never mastered the art of having a male companion who was anything more than just a friend or colleague. She couldn't put up with false flattery, lechery, and bravado. She quite enjoyed watching the hot air leak from would-be suitors, but she always kept them at a distance. The fact that these Saiyans could easily overpower her and do what they liked was not lost on her. It's not like she didn't know how to defend herself, but in such close quarters and on the beginning of what could end up being a long trip, getting into a scrap was ill advised. She was glad to hear from Kakarot that Vegeta had put down a rule about them entering their room and based on Nappa's reaction, he had made more rules to keep the men in line.

Speaking of Vegeta, she needed to talk to him about the route home. "Where is Vegeta?" Raditz flinched and Nappa slammed his hand on the table.

"You will use his proper title, Prince Vegeta." Bulma rolled her eyes, she hated being told what to do and was certainly not going to use his title now, just to spite Nappa.

For a few moments they were at a standoff stare down, neither one close to acquiescing, then Nappa stood, leaning over the table to intimidate the, clearly suicidal by most people's standards, bluenette.

The silence was broken by Chi chi, "You'll have to forgive her, you see, on Earth we have lost use of such titles, most remain as an empty gesture left to some very old houses that represent no real form of power."

Nappa sneered at her and sat down, "And what would Earthlings know of power."

"More than you, general. And if you are so insistent on the use of titles, then you can address her as Princess. She is one who has more than EARNED her title." Bulma stood and left the room in search of his Highness.

0o0

He had been in the bridge since he arrived on the ship. He kept himself busy sorting out the route they were going to take to get home, the truth was he was hiding. He had never in his life met someone who wasn't afraid of him or smarter than him. Who was this woman? Why couldn't he get her out of his mind?

He heard the doors of the bridge open, "Nappa, I will take dinner in my quarters."

"Awe, and I was so looking forward to having you for dinner." Vegeta spun his chair to face the offending voice. What he saw did not match what he expected to see. In place of the dirt-covered grease monkey that he met on planet Shurell, stood a slender woman with generous curves and brilliant blue hair that flowed down her shoulders in waves. The color matched the bright blue eyes that he had found so striking before. Eyes that were just as deep even without the foil of an oil and dirt covered complexion.

It took him a moment to catch himself staring, but immediately replaced his stunned look with one of indignation, "How did you?"

"I figured you would be on the bridge, plotting your course." A suspicious look came over the Prince's face, "I had a hand in the design of these ships, I am familiar with the location of the bridge."

Silence hung in the air between them, Bulma moved her gaze to the navigation screens, "I wanted to talk to you about our journey home."

"Let me guess, whatever I've thought up you're going to have a problem with."

"That depends on what you've thought up."

"Tch."

"Listen, I know that you don't like being told what to do, I don't either, but the only reason why you, your crew, and my friend are here is because of me."

"My men are my concern, as is my mission, which happens to be taking care that you arrive on Vegeta without harm. I do not fail my missions." His dismissive tone was the same one she had heard so many times from people who thought because of her age or gender that she was not capable, it drove Bulma crazy.

"I know that you take the lives of your men seriously, so do I. You didn't even know I was a woman. Do you not care to ask, what else you don't know?...We are not enemies, you and I." He could hear the sincerity in her voice.

After a long pause, Vegeta pulled up his map and the route he was planning to take home. It was going to be about a month, taking a long way around, making it look like he was patrolling rather than delivering precious cargo home. Bulma took a look at the route and scrutinized it for a few minutes before she pointed to an area, "Here, there is a strong magnetic patch, it will mess with the ship's sensors, It is starting to grow into the normal fly zone, just make sure you keep closer to the inside of the curve."

"Its not on any of our records or reports from ships in that area."

"It wouldn't be. There are a lot of secrets the Saiyan and Earth empires are keeping as close as possible, just in case."

Vegeta listened while she pointed out a few other anomalies that could interfere with their travels. Her information was good, nothing he could have known, and she was not trying to one-up him like before.

"Overall not bad, it makes sense that you would go this way. Do not write down the things I've told you, everything is classified no records on board should be left in case it's ever compromised."

He felt a small swell of pride that she found his plan to be a good one, "I'll keep that in mind and encrypt our map."

"Don't use a special encryption, make another plan and encrypt that. If they capture the files, they'll think this is the decoy plan and the other is the real one. Just make sure you keep the files together."

"You seem to know a lot about fooling other people."

"I've been playing the spy game since I was little. How to deceive an enemy, and what information to show or hold back. It's not the child's games it used to be, not when real lives are at stake." He looked into her eyes and he saw a sadness there, as if the weight of the world were bearing down on her.

Her stomach growled at that moment, "You haven't eaten?"

"No, I wanted to make sure everything was all set." She looked down at her watch, "Do you think they left us anything?"

"Woman, I am the Prince of all Saiyans."

Bulma giggled, "Right, how could I forget." She started to leave then turned, "Do you want me to tell them to bring you something?"

With her laughter, Vegeta realized that he felt lighter now and didn't need to hide away, "No, I will join you, after all."

0o0

They walked into a room and all the talking stopped, Vegeta took his place at the head of the table with Nappa and Raditz at either side, Bulma started walking to the chair that Turtles had told her she could sit in towards the other end of the table.

The group ate and drank. Bulma and Chi chi were slack-jawed at the amount of food the Saiyans put away, and when Tarble served Bulma's plate the Earthlings both insisted that they share. The truth was that one serving was more than they could eat together. Towards the end of the meal, Vegeta started going over the orders for the following days system checks, maintenance, and tuning of different equipment. This talk attracted the attention of Bulma.

"I wouldn't mind taking a look at the systems. Perhaps a few fine tuning upgrades." A small thud was heard, "Ow, Chi chi, why did you kick me?"

Chi Chi was angry, "You promised, it's been a week since you've gotten more than an hour's sleep at a time. You can't keep burning the candle at both ends."

Vegeta chimed in, "Raditz, will do his work as assigned. There is more than enough time in our journey for you to tinker, after you have caught up on sleep. And for the success of this mission, the two of you are to eat regular meals. I'm not going to bring a malnourished, sleep-deprived scientist to my father."

Seeing now she had no support she muttered, "All of you are being ridiculous." Another kick, "Ok, ok." Bulma pushed out her chair and threw her napkin on the table, "I'm going to bed. Ya happy?"

Chi chi immediately followed, but not before saying a quick thank you to Prince Vegeta on her way out.

There was no argument once they got to their rooms, Bulma fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow and slept for a solid 12 hours.

O0o

"Woman, what is the meaning of this?!"

"My name is BULMA! And I'm afraid you'll have to be more specific."

Parts were everywhere, in the five days that she had been on board she had taken apart half of the backup thrusters, 3 of the rail gun decks, and it seems was currently elbow deep in dismantling the extra space pod. This woman was absolutely mad, it seemed that she had left the systems in working order (admittedly in better working order than previous), but now she was stockpiling parts and scraps to do kami knows what.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Bulma didn't lift her head from her current project, "I'm giving this pod a tune-up and removing excess ballast."

"And what about the rest of this…this…this junkyard?"

Bulma looked around, she had to admit that her workspace could be cleaner, but it was organized chaos. She knew exactly where everything was. "You said I could "tinker"."

The blood vessel on Vegeta's forehead was bulging, "I didn't know you would be taking apart half my ship."

Bulma stood from her work, "Well maybe I wouldn't have to, if your Saiyan engineers knew how to follow instructions and put one together."

Vegeta strode forward, "WOMAN, I'll have you know…"

Suddenly the whole ship began to shake. Bulma stumbled and Vegeta caught her before she could fall over. Grasping her arm tightly, "This better not be another one of your upgrades."

"Don't be ridiculous, nothing I've touched could cause a destabilization. It's probably just a radiation flare or a gravity pull or a…" The shaking stopped, then the warning lights started to flash, "Hull breach."

Vegeta got on his scouter, "All crew to emergency stations, I need status reports on all major systems. Bridge ETA 20 seconds."

Bulma shouted, "Vegeta, you get the life support and primary propulsion systems stabilized, and I'll work on isolating the hull breach damage. Hopefully it's not too bad."

Vegeta nodded and headed off to the bridge.

Bulma spoke over her wrist com, "Chi chi, I'm going to need you to get the PIXIES to airlock, the ship might be compromised."

"Already on my way."

"Good, I'm going down to engineering, let me know where the damage is." Bulma ran down the halls of the ship to engineering, the other Saiyans clearing a path for her as she came through. Soon someone fell into step behind her, looking back she saw the long-haired Raditz.

Before she could say anything, Chi chi came through, "Bulma there's a breach on the cargo hold compartment delta bravo 3. It's gotten through the first two layers, but not through the heat shield. If you can reinforce the wall in that area we could still breach atmosphere and make repairs."

"Good work, Chi, I'm making my way to the breach to patch things up. Can you relay everything to the bridge?"

"Will do, be careful, Bulma."

Raditz stopped to change directions, "The cargo is this way."

Bulma yelled back, "I know, we need a patch kit first." She skidded to a stop and faced Raditz, "You go and start clearing the hold so we can work, I'll meet you there."

By the time, she got to the hold Raditz and two other soldiers had the exterior wall cleared. Bulma threw down the patch kit and they got to work setting up the tarp-like patch on the wall. "We have to heat treat it and it will bond to the wall and reinforce the structure." She went back to the kit to grab the heat gun so she could start, but when she turned back, she saw Raditz using his hands to meld the materials. "Right, you guys can do that."

"Hurry up and get that side." The two of them made quick work of the patch-job.

Right after they finished, the ship was jostled again this time Bulma fell back from the shelf she was perched upon. She cried out as she waited for the hard crash and searing heat of the instrument that she had been holding, but neither of them came. She opened her eyes to find that Raditz was holding her close to his well-formed body with one arm and caught the handle of the gun with the other. "Thanks."

Suddenly Chi chi came over Bulma's com, "Bulma, there was another impact. The PIXIES are performing scans and trying to protect the hull the best they can, but we need to get away from this field."

"I'm on it." She looked up at Raditz, "I need to get to the bridge."

"You two, clean this up and finish isolating this section of the hold. Keep watch of the patch, report quickly if anything changes."

The two soldiers answered in unison, "Yes, Sir."

…

"What's going on? Why are we still getting hit?"

"Shut up, woman! I'm dealing with it."

"Oh yeah, I can see that." She went to one of the control stations, "Move." The soldier that was manning the station took one look at this madwoman, who had dared to talk back to his prince, and jumped out of his chair.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm getting us out of this shit storm you got us in." She started typing away at the console. The main screens started to switch to act as one unit, giving a panoramic view of the field outside. "Terminal 3, I need you to call out the dimensions of the storm cloud. I need to know how far we need to go to get away from this. Vegeta, can you find which sector on the route we're on? We need to find out if we are on course." She was pecking away at the controls moving the ship around to avoid the debris field they were surrounded by.

Vegeta swallowed his anger at being ordered around when he saw Bulma avoid a piece of debris half the size of the ship that was coming at them. Her insolence was going to have to be dealt with later. "Terminal 4 and 5 pull up the files I'm sending you and look for markers that will tell us where we are. Send the coordinates through the channels."

"Looks like the cloud ends 2 crecks starboard, 5 crecks port, decendant 8 crecks, and 1.5 crecks risen."

A few meteors brushed the side hull, "Shit!"

"What the blast are you doing? Trying to get us killed?"

"I'm switching to manual mode. The computer can't handle the change patterns."

Vegeta held his breath as he watched Bulma pilot her way through the mess that surrounded them only letting it out when he saw the opening that let them out into the vast range of clear space. Once the ship cleared the last bits of the debris all the soldiers in the room let out a cheer of relief and celebration.

"We made it." Bulma's shoulders dropped, relaxed that the ordeal was now over. "I'm setting temporary course and pinging for landing stops, so we can find a place to check out the damage." She turned to the soldier that gave her his seat, and with a victorious smirk she said, "You can have your chair back."

Her victory was not long lived because once she turned around she saw Vegeta glaring daggers at her. "Woman, come with me."

Notes:

PIXIES are Proximity interstellar examination infrared elliptical scanners, basically little drones that can scan, assess, and sometimes repair spaceships while they are still in space.

Crecks: Made up distance unit roughly the diameter of the Earth and moon put together.


	5. Close Call

"Woman, come with me."

Vegeta looked mad. At his command, all the soldiers who were celebrating became quiet and Bulma went from happy to pissed. Vegeta led the way to his private office. Once they were there, he turned on Bulma, "What the hell do you think you were doing? Ordering me around, in front of MY MEN!"

"I was saving your butt! If I hadn't jumped in this ship would be looking like swiss cheese."

He started pacing back and forth throwing up his hands, "Your insolence knows no bounds! You barged into MY bridge and started giving orders as if these men belonged to YOU." He stopped and turned to her again, "No one…If you…"

She put her hands on her hips, "I think the words you are looking for are 'Thank you, Bulma, for getting us out of a class 5 shit storm.'" The vein in his forehead started to throb vigorously and the room was starting to feel hot, "Believe it or not we were ALL very close to dying today."

Vegeta shook his head, "I know that, we had a hull breach, which is what you were supposed to be fixing!"

"YOU KNOW NOTHING! The hull was stabilized before I got to the bridge. It was that debris field…those rocks." Bulma stepped back and took a calming breath, "To get us out of there I had to reprogram part of the ship navigator sequencing and adjust the thrust point trajectories before I could take it in manual mode. Your guy would have driven us into a wall. I'm sorry if your fragile ego can't handle someone saving you. Next time you are welcome to go down with the ship, just NOT WHEN I'M ON IT!" She was getting loud now.

Vegeta was dumbfounded. Here he was arguing with a weak human girl over the command of his ship, and instead of shrinking in fear she stood in defiance. There was something about the fierceness of her words and her unfailing confidence that made part of him want to see what else she would do. His inner beast was attracted to the decent fight that she provided, but his rational side knew that continuing could stir up something that neither of them were ready to address. He decided to take a seat at his desk, pretending to be occupied with some paperwork that was there.

Silence hung in the air along with a palpable tension, Bulma was so angry with him that she could barely see straight. 'How dare he be so ungrateful, we almost died…we almost DIED.' The color started to drain from her face as the realization finally started to sink in and a cold shudder went up her spine ending with a shake of her head.

Vegeta stared at her, in a short span of time she went from rage to something different, more quiet. She didn't feel as present as she seemed a moment before, her eyes were distant.

They were interrupted by a beeping of a message on Vegeta's consol. "It's the bridge, they have approximated our coordinates." Vegeta put the map up on the larger display.

Bulma studied it for a moment, "This doesn't seem right. How did we get so far off course?" She turned to him, "Do you have the route you originally planned?"

Vegeta swiped the star map with his planned route on it. "There was no record of a debris field near us."

After a few minutes of looking back and forth between the two maps, she sucked in a breath.

Vegeta was staring at the maps as well, he could see that his soldiers had estimated their position far from their original route, but he could not determine how or why they got there. "What?"

With a few gestures, Bulma overlaid the recent scans with the original route. "Oh, no. He destroyed it."

Vegeta gazed at the map again, trying to see what she could.

Noticing his confusion, she clarified, "Look at the debris field location of the first map, see how it radiates out?" She brought the other map to the forefront, "Look at what is at the center of that field on the second map."

It was a planet; well it used to be a planet. Vegeta had seen this before on some of his missions into the space between Saiyan and Icejin territory. Frieza and a few choice men would take to blowing up planets when they were done sucking resources and the surface was too damaged to sell, or as a sign to neighboring systems that they were not to mess with Frieza, or when they got upset, and sometimes they did it just for shits and giggles.

He looked over to the woman, she was seated in one of the chairs and looked a bit… devastated. He didn't like her this way, he had an urge to find some way to get her back to normal. He searched the file, "It wasn't inhabited."

She shook her head, trying to wake herself out of the stupor she was in. She rubbed her hands over her face, "Shurell," she looked at him with a bit of panic and jumped out of her chair to rush to his desk console, "Do you think they got the system up? Did it hold?"

He could see the worry and guilt on her face, though she tried to hide it, the guilt at least. "They wouldn't have blown this one up if they could have done it to Shurell." A few taps later and her shoulders relaxed a bit. She must have gotten a signal from the planet.

Something about her determination in her mission and utter disappointment in the loss of a planet, made him want to comfort her. It was as if she was holding herself personally responsible for the devastation that Frieza had caused. Vegeta knew that she was being ridiculous, there was no way she could hold herself responsible for the actions taken by a madman. "It's a game to him. If you think you can control his players, you will only be making things difficult for yourself."

"I know that." She snapped at him then calmed, realizing that Vegeta was not her enemy in that moment, "It just SHOULDN'T happen." She suddenly looked like all the energy that kept her vibrant personality running on turbo speed was drained.

Vegeta nodded, "You need rest."

Bulma brushed her hair back, "I'm fine. The patch will need to be addressed, we can't wait long before we risk issues with planet barrier entry."

"I will take care of finding a safe place for us to land and perform repairs, even accounting for parts we might need. You are going back to your room."

Bulma sat up with her arms crossed "Wha.."

But Vegeta was not having it and cut her off before she could build momentum to her argument, "When was the last time you got a proper rest? You've been running around here for the past 4 hours dealing with this mess, before that you had been tinkering for gods' know how long. Believe it or not, there ARE people on this ship who are perfectly capable of doing their jobs without your meddling."

Bulma stood up like a shot, "Meddling, meddling! What would you…" When Bulma stood, Vegeta made the decision to take matters into his own hands. "What the hell are you doing? Put me down!"

Vegeta was walking down the hallway with Bulma thrown over his shoulder, kicking and screaming, her fists on his back felt like nothing. The soldiers were starting to poke their heads in the hallway to see what was causing the commotion. By the time they reached her room the whole ship had caught an eyeful of the tantrum throwing heiress and the moody prince. Vegeta was sure he would have to quash some rumors once he was done.

Vegeta entered into the girls common room and went straight through to Bulma's bedroom, where he less than gently deposited her onto the bed. Bulma huffed, but Vegeta could see that she was too tired to put up more of a fight. Something in him felt bad about pushing her when she was not at her best.

"You are needed fresh, in case we run into something like that again, and to oversee the repairs. Since you have volunteered your services, you will be expected to follow the rack rules that the others follow. If I am to rely on you, then you have to take care of yourself better than this. If I catch you out of this room in the next eight hours, I'll bring you back and strap you to the bed."

He left without another word.

Vegeta was dealing with the aftermath of the situation; he had to make sure that he knew everything. The first thing he did was order a guard for Bulma's suite; his orders were that the blue-haired woman was not allowed out until he ordered otherwise. He then ordered reports from the men involved with the patch job.

Before him stood Raditz and two lower level soldiers, something about Raditz being involved made Vegeta's gut turn, "Raditz, report!"

"I was near the crew mess when the alarm went off, I started to head to the engine room to check on things, when I saw Bul..Dr. Briefs going in the same direction with a purpose, so I followed her. I thought she might require assistance if anything large was broken. Her assistant informed her of the location of the breach."

"Where is that?"

"The DB3 cargo hold. I pulled these two in to help clear the room, while Dr. Briefs got the patch materials. We installed the patch and made our way to the bridge. These two stayed behind to secure the hold and monitor the patch."

Vegeta had been keeping his eyes on Raditz the whole time, but shifted his gaze to the two men behind him. "Patch status?"

The two men snapped to attention, "Sir, the patch is holding strong, no indication of bowing, slip, or pitting, sir."

Vegeta focused on his captain's log, "Raditz, I want surveillance put on the patch and a live feed up in the bridge at all times, until it gets permanent repairs. After you've arranged that, I want you to bring the rest of the Alpha team here for a debrief."

Raditz was a bit surprised, for a moment, he thought Vegeta was getting angry at him, but he wasn't grilling him and no punishment was handed down. Something felt off, but he wasn't about to start questioning Vegeta, "Yes, Prince."

Raditz left, and as soon as the door closed Vegeta returned his focus back to the two soldiers, "Is there anything that you two would like to add onto your report?"

The soldiers looked at each other then back to their prince, "Add, sir?"

Vegeta's grip tightened on his tablet, "Was there anything of note that you observed while performing your duties? Anything between Col. Raditz and Dr. Briefs?"

A moment of confusion, then a quick response from the first soldier, "Sir, there wasn't any unusual interaction between the colonel and the human. Except…"

"Except what?"

The second soldier spoke this time, "We saw Col. Raditz catch Dr. Briefs when she almost fell." He paused, not sure if this was what he wanted to know; Vegeta motioned to continue. "She was holding a heat gun and it almost burned her, but Col. Raditz caught her and the gun before she was burned."

Vegeta sat back in his chair, "Anything else."

"Col. Raditz held her for a bit, but she didn't react the way she usually does."

"What do you mean?" He was going to kill Raditz, the fool.

"Well, normally Col. Raditz tries his best to rile up Dr. Briefs, and usually she takes the bait, yelling at him or insulting him. The colonel seems to like getting her as mad as possible."

"Why would he do something like that?" Vegeta growled.

"He says he likes to see her face get all red, and wants to see how mad she will get before her head explodes. I think that he might be attracted to Dr. Briefs, though not seriously, no true Saiyan would look at an alien as more than just a good time, especially one as weak as…"

"That's enough! The two of you are done here. I want you to return to your posts, and I don't want to hear a word of this conversation getting out to anyone, UNDERSTOOD!?"

"Sir, yes, Sir." The two soldiers said in unison before they practically ran out of the room.

Vegeta didn't want to admit that what the soldiers said had bothered him. Not only what they said about Raditz's feelings towards Bulma, but their feelings about her bothered him. Of course what they said was expected from any self-respecting Saiyan. They were a race that valued strength above all else and the Earthlings were nothing to speak of strength-wise. He shook off the feelings stirred up by recent events and prepared for his debriefing.


	6. Setting Out

Bulma watched the small planet grow bigger from her room's window. They were scheduled to land in 3 hours and she couldn't sleep. After Vegeta humiliated her she refused to speak to him, only giving input through Chi chi or Kakarot. She couldn't stand him, or the fact that he was right about her being too tired to continue. After she was thrown on her bed, she found it difficult to get herself up and ended up sleeping for quite a while. When she woke up Chi chi had brought her food and though she said nothing about it, Bulma could tell she was smirking at the fact that the prince had MADE Bulma go to bed.

Since then, Bulma had been taking better care of herself, eating and sleeping on a somewhat regular schedule. She had never been one to pay much attention to her own needs, usually Chi chi had to pry her away from her projects or cut the power to her work before she would stop. She hated to admit it, but Vegeta had a point. If something was to happen again, and she was worn out, she would have been useless to help. With the ship the way it is, that couldn't happen.

Her door slide open, it was Chi chi, "Can't sleep?"

"I was. I just woke up."

Chi chi sat on the bed, "Are you worried about the ship holding during entry?"

"No, it should hold fine. I'm a little excited to see what is on this planet." Bulma started to get dressed.

Chi chi shook her head, "You get so excited every time we get to a new planet, even the inhospitable ones." Bulma smirked. "This is just supposed to be a pit stop, repairs, supplies and that's it. It's no time for new discoveries. Promise me you aren't going to do anything reckless."

Bulma rolled her eyes, "You're being a bit dramatic don't you think? Just a little exploring while the ship recharges…"

"Don't say it."

"Come on,"

"Don't"

"What could happen?"

"Why do you say stuff like that? It's just asking for trouble."

"Let's go get some food and do final checks before we land."

O0

The planet was pink. They had landed in a tall grassland area, to one side were mountain ranges, to the other side were forests, and further beyond that there were signs of a city. The planet was inhabited and was considered to be partial to the Saiyan empire, although there was no formal treaty, it was agreed that no hostile actions were to take place as long as the common laws of the Saiyan empire were observed by its residents. That's what the briefing said, of course Bulma didn't make it to the briefing because she refused to 'cater to a pint-sized twerp on a ego trip'.

Chi chi didn't know what she was going to do. She had never seen anyone get that far under Bulma's skin. For now it seemed best to play her part and act as go-between, lest there be another blow up between the two hot heads. Besides it got her more time with Kakarot. She had come to really like him, he wasn't like the other men on the ship, he was so innocent and it was refreshing not to be around a guy that was just nice for no reason.

She sighed as she walked into the room where Bulma was running around getting her supplies ready for when the ship landed. "Hey Bulma, I got the briefings on the planet."

"Great, can you upload them to my tablet? I'll take a look at them later." Bulma was digging in another toolbox that she had opened from her capsules.

"What are you doing? I thought you had all the supplies ready an hour ago?"

"I'm trying to find my good headphones. I don't want to hear that pipsqueak while I'm fixing the ship."

"About that, Bulma" Chi chi cringed.

Bulma stood up and looked at Chi chi with her eyebrow raised, "what?"

"Prince Vegeta wants his crew to fix the hole."

"WHAT!" if it was possible, Chi chi would have seen steam coming out of Bulma's ears, "after all that work, he wants to use HIS men…"

Before Bulma could get too far into her rant, Chi chi interjected, "Well, it is a standard repair, that is what all of our scans told us. And you could be there to supervise and sign off on the repair job so that it's done correctly. Vegeta thought that you would be too busy because you haven't shown up to any of the meetings." That last part was said with a little bit of malice. It wasn't really Chi chi's job to sit in for meetings on Bulma's behalf.

What surprised Chi chi, was that in the middle of Bulma's wrath, she suddenly got calm. "You know what, you're right."

Something was up, "Pardon?"

"You're right, it is a standard repair, and his men are more than capable of dealing with it."

Chi chi eyed Bulma, "Huh?" She looked around, 'Am I being punk'd?' Bulma pulled out her headphones and closed up the various toolkit capsules that had been lying around the room. "Why are you being so reasonable all of a sudden?"

"I'm agreeing with you. A better question is, why aren't you happy that your friend sees the logic within your infinite wisdom, and is deciding NOT to spend a lot of time and energy making more work for myself?"

Chi chi put her hands on her hips, "Um, how about because I'm not brain dead. There are two options for why you aren't being so YOU about this. One is that you're up to something, and two is that you've been taken over by pod-people."

"Oh, come on Chi chi, don't you want to be one of us, one of us, one of us." Bulma droned on like she had been taken over. Chi chi rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

"So what are you up to, this time?"

"I was just thinking of some hiking in those mountain ranges, maybe pick up a few specimens, and of course some epic snow boarding on our way down." Bulma waved her winter camping capsule in front of Chichi.

"OUR way down?" Bulma tossed Chi chi's capsule to her, "So I guess I'm joining you on this excursion."

Bulma sighed, "You don't have to go. No, no, by all means, if you would like to stay here and deal with his HIGHNESS, be my guest."

Chi chi looked down at the capsule, then back up at Bulma, "What makes you think that Prince Vegeta will let you go on this little excursion?"

"LET me go!? I don't take orders from him! And I don't need his permission to do anything."

Chi chi started to smirk, "When are these childish antics going to stop from the two of you? I think you're just mad because he finally got the better of you after the accident."

It had been an unspoken thing between the two friends since it happened. Chi chi knew that mentioning the humiliating incident was not going to go over well, but she had just had enough of Bulma's attitude.

Bulma, however, was not ready to come to terms with how she had acted, "You know what. Don't come. No one is forcing you to be around such a child. I'll be out for three days that should be enough time for them to repair the ship, resupply the liquids, and charge the fuel cells. I'll be back before we need to leave, and if his royal ass wants to leave early, then I have my own ship that I can take home." And with that speech over, she stormed out leaving her friend dumbfounded.

Xxxx

He had everything running smoothly, his soldiers all had their orders. He sent one group to the village to trade for some repair items and supplies, one group to set up the pumping system to replenish their water supplies and oxygen tanks, and another group of his top mechanics to deal with the repair work. The only thing missing now was what trouble his two guests were going to get up to.

At first it seemed like the scientist wench had heeded his orders on taking rest, but the audacity of her utter refusal to be in his presence was wearing on his nerves. If she felt like she could deal with him like that, then he would simply cut her out altogether. He had expected her to come barreling into his office demanding to be in charge of the ship's repairs, he had even been waiting to give his excellent response, but nothing ever came.

"Prince Vegeta, I have come to give you an update on our progress." It was Kakarot, lately he had been getting more involved with the affairs of the ship, Vegeta believed it had something to do with the raven-haired woman who stood in for the scientist.

"Make it quick."

"Ok, well everything is as you ordered, all the teams are dispatched and everything is on schedule so far."

"No trouble from our "guests"?"

Kakarot looked up from his pad, "No sir. I haven't heard anything from Bulma and Miss Chi chi since they left the ship this morning."

"Left!?" Vegeta turned towards Kakarot, "What do you mean left? Did they go with the team to the town?"

"No."

"The team to retrieve fluids."

"Ah, no, sir."

"Are they with the repair team?"

Kakarot made that goofy grin and put his hand behind his head like he always does when he is about to say something utterly stupid, "No, they didn't leave with any of our men."

"What!?"

"There were no orders preventing them from leaving the ship."

Vegeta was hopping mad now, "You imbecile! Do you really need orders to understand our mission is to bring back the scientist to planet Vegeta in roughly the same condition we found her. How do you expect to do that by allowing her to go gallivanting off without guards?"

"Awe, Vegeta, I don't think they would have gone far, and besides, it looked like they needed some space. They didn't have much on them, I'm sure they just wanted to take a walk for a bit and will be back soon."

Vegeta was now pinching the bridge of his nose in an effort to calm down, "Why do you say that?"

"It seemed like they were mad at each other. Bulma started off in a huff and seemed to ignore Chi chi who was following her. I think they fought before and maybe they need to spar or something to get it out."

"You're an idiot!"

"Awe, Vegeta, you don't have to be so mean."

"Just tell me Kakarot, how long have they been gone?"

"Oh, just about 6 hours."

"SIX HOURS!" Vegeta finally lost it and punched Kakarot in the face. He then quickly tapped on his scouter to call on his less than idiotic men, "Nappa, Raditz, Turtles, to the bridge, NOW!"

xxxx

Three hours earlier…

They had been hiking for a while when they finally decided to take a break. They were making good time getting up the mountain. Unfortunately one of the reasons was because it seemed like Bulma was trying to out run her friend in an effort not to talk about what happened.

"Whew. I thought you said this was going to take three days? At this pace you'll reach the top by tomorrow morning." Chi chi sat down breathing heavily.

Bulma stood up to hand her canteen to Chi chi, "I'm sorry." Chi chi took the water and started drinking. "You were right, I've been acting like a brat. You don't need to keep covering for me."

Chi chi's eyes grew wide, "I don't mind stepping in every now and then, especially when you are actually busy, but ..."

"But you shouldn't have to. I'm not a child and it shouldn't take you or Prince Asshat to tell me to take care of myself."

Chi chi rolled her eyes, "Prince Asshat? So much for not being a child."

"Urh," now it was Bulma's turn to roll her eyes. "What do you want me to say? He's just so…so…"

"Like you." Chi chi handed the canteen back to Bulma.

"What? I AM NOT…" Bulma took the canteen and sat down next to Chi chi.

"Alike? Uh, yes you are. Both of you like to be in control of EVERYTHING and neither one of you can stand to be wrong."

"I can be wrong."

Chi chi bumped her shoulder to Bulma's, "You can't stand to be wrong about being wrong." Bulma shrugged her shoulders again. "Look you both have personality traits that aren't the easiest to get along with, but I think that both of you really want the same things. You just need to learn how to accept help and remember that you are not the ONLY person who is going to save the universe from bad people."

"I know you are right." Bulma huffed, "It's just…he is so irritating when he thinks he's right."

Smiling Chi chi said, "Well, now you know how everyone else feels." Now it was Bulma's turn to bump Chi chi on the shoulder. The pair laughed, before she laid back onto the ground, looking up to the yellow sky.

"So, how did you get Vegeta to agree to let us come out here alone?"

Chi chi laid back too, "I didn't say anything."

Bulma sat up, "So they just let us walk out on our own, with no guards, and no idea when we would be back?"

"I'm sure they'll have readings on us. I think that Kakarot saw us leave."

"What idiots!"

"Bul-ma!"

"What? They are." Bulma got up from the ground, "Their entire mission is to get us back to planet Vegeta, and they just let us go off to Kami knows where with no protection?"

Chi chi got up as well, "Okay you have a point, but didn't you want to go off by yourself?"

"Yeah, but I never thought they'd let us out of their sight without at least an escort." Both girls started off on their path again.

"Maybe they're following us." Chi chi turned back to see if there was any sign of someone following.

Bulma held up her wristwatch, "Pft, doubt it. My proximity sensors aren't picking up anything big enough to be a Saiyan."

"What about anything big enough to be lunch?"

xxxx

"How can Kakarot be so stupid?"

"Geese, Raditz, I said I'm sorry, already."

"A lot of good that does us. They must have gone up the mountain and something is interfering with the scouters so we can't find them. Vegeta is going to have our tails for this."

Turtles came in over the scouter, **"Does anyone have a reading on the targets?"**

"Negative, there seems to be some interference coming from the mountain."

"Maybe we should go back and track their scent?"

"Let's make one more pass around the place before we go back that way."

"Is that smoke?"

"Yeah, it looks like a small fire. That could be them, lets check it out."

"Turtles, on the East side of the mountain about 7 miles up we've spotted smoke, it might be them. If you don't here back from us in 3 minutes, come and meet us there."

Xxxx

Chi chi sits tending to a small fire she's set up, waiting for Bulma to bring back their lunch. Suddenly Bulma's proximity watch starts beeping faster and faster, a sign that something big is approaching.

Chi chi grabs her gun and waits as the beeps start to get louder and bleed together, until it suddenly stopped. "What cha doing good lookin'?"

Chi chi turned around quickly shooting above the two oafs heads just in time. "What the hell is wrong with you? I could have shot you."

"We've been looking for you for half an hour. Where is Bulma?"

"Why would it take you a half hour to find us? Can't you just use your scouters?"

Raditz crossed his arms and started to walk around inspecting the small campsite, "Our scouters don't work on this mountain."

A small beep came from a device next to Chi chi. Kakarot nodded his head towards it, "What is that?"

"Proximity sensor, it tells us when large animals are close." Kakarot and Raditz both started to look around for any ambushing predators. "It's probably Bulma coming back. Why are your scouters not working?"

From a short distance away, they heard the answer, "Because this mountain is ferrous."

"Hey look it's Bulma." Kakarot waved his hand.

Raditz quirked his eyebrow, "what do you mean ferrous?"

"This mountain is made of a material that interferes with magnetic waves. It means that long range sensors can get distorted." Bulma plopped down her kill of two rabbit-like creatures. "Your scouters aren't going to be too useful here."

"Is that why you two are so far away from the ship? Did you get lost?"

Bulma looked over at Chi chi and smirked, "No, we're not lost."

"You are more than half a day's walk from base and nightfall is in 3 hours. How were you planning on getting back before dark?"

This time Chi chi replied as she was starting to skin the recently caught game, "We weren't."

"What do you mean? The two of you were planning on staying out here all night. You have nothing with you; this place is going to get too cold for girls like you to be out here."

"Girls like US?"


End file.
